Since 2000, a total of 19 plans have been prepared that focus on portions of downtown and the center city area. These plans, while useful and insightful in themselves, have little connectivity between each other, which has made it challenging to achieve a visible and significant impact. In 2010, the City of Covington was one of only 42 communities nationwide awarded a Community Challenge Planning Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development to fund preparation of a Downtown Center City Action Plan. This plan will bring together ideas/elements from previous plans as well as providing new updated ideas/concepts that will create a unifying strategy for the City to follow in revitalization programming.

The Action Plan will encompass the general area where the Community Development Department will focus its downtown center city revitalization efforts and activities. The area is bounded by the Ohio River on the north, 13th Street on the south, the Licking River on the east, and I-71/I-75 on the west. The area includes five commercial areas: Riverfront/Related Area; Madison/Scott Area; Mainstrasse Village Area; Pike Street Corridor west of the CSX Railroad; and the 12th Street/Martin Luther King Boulevard Corridor. In addition, the area includes the following residential neighborhoods: Licking Riverside; a large portion of Eastside; Mutter Gottes; Seminary Square; Mainstrasse; and portions of Westside.

For a copy of the City’s Public Participation plan, click here.